Dancing to a Cuban beat in the shadow of the Great Wall

It's a warm spring Monday afternoon at the foot of Badaling section of the Great Wall on the outskirts of Beijing when Cuban dance company, Lizt Alfonso Dance Cuba, raises the temperature with a performance fusing ballet, flamenco, cha-cha, salsa and rumba.

Thirty dancers fill the stage as they perform thematic works portraying Cuban culture - from the 1950s to the present day, including Hombre, which has the entire female ensemble dancing and Neighborhood, which is derived from Cuban folk dances mixed with rock 'n' roll.

"It feels like being in Cuba and experiencing the country's culture," says Gao Tianqi, one of the students from the dance department of Beijing Humanities University.